Q U I C K H I T S

UFC President Dana White spoke with USA Today Sports about overnight sensation, Uriah Hall. “Every guy Uriah fought wound up in the hospital. The first fight to get into the house, he breaks the kid’s arm. Then he knocks out Adam Cella with an incredible spinning high kick, then he knocks out Bubba McDaniel and then Dylan Andrews had a broken nose. That’s never happened in the history of ‘TUF.’ We do have to wait and see, but Uriah does have a lot of experience. And if you look at his losses, one was to Chris Weidman, who’s fighting Anderson Silva in July for the title, and his other loss was to Costa Philippou, who is also legit. No guy has come off any season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ looking as nasty as this guy has. People are on my Twitter saying, Read More »

On Tuesday’s “UFC Tonight” on Fuel TV, Ariel Helwani said Nick Diaz’s legal representative, Jonathan Tweedale, confirmed that Diaz is determined to stay retired this time around unless he gets a fight with Georges St-Pierre or Anderson Silva. “As for Nick Diaz and his fighting future, I asked Tweedale that question, and he said, ‘Right now, he’s retired, unless he gets a rematch with Georges St-Pierre or the big Anderson Silva fight.’ Apparently if he doesn’t get those fights, he is going to remain retired.” Yeah, I don’t see either of those fights happening so I guess the older Diaz brother will stay shelved this time. Of course, this is like the third retirement from MMA competition so who really Read More »

UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva talked to Brazilian site Tatame.com about potential superfights against Jon Jones and Georges St-Pierre. On Jones bout on UFC’s 20-year-anniversary in November: “Look…If I live until then…(laughs). But I think so. Anything can happen. But I think it’s possible to happen, yes. I have to train, you know, to make a great show for the fans.” On Georges St-Pierre: “I did not see his last fight, but I think [he is] a great strategist. Fight’s within the rules. It is nothing too abnormal. He’s a complete guy, but he struggles with the very rule of the sport. He knows how Read More »

Bobby Lashley posted the following on his Facebook: “Sorry for the delay in responding to all of you who are eager to see me fight again. I will not be on the Strikeforce card in April, but my training is going very well and I’m fully prepared to step into the cage when the time is right. I will let you know as soon as my next fight is set!” The updated card for April 17th: MAIN CARD – Champ Jake Shields vs. Dan Henderson (Middleweight title fight) – Champ Gegard Mousasi vs. Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal (Light Heavyweight title fight) – Champ Gilbert Melendez vs. Shinya Aoki (Lightweight title fight) PRELIMINARY CARD – Zach Underwood vs. Hunter Worsham – Josh Schockman vs. Cale Yarbrough – Dustin Ortiz vs. Justin Pennington – Andrew Uhrich vs. Dustin West – Chris Hawk vs. Ovince St. Preux – Thomas Campbell vs. Cody Floyd Quick Hit: This is a tremendous blow for Strikeforce. I guess they couldn’t find Bobby an opponent because I know he was training to fight on this card. This will hurt Strikeforce’s ratings a bit, as everyone is curious about Lashley’s progression. Him not fighting coupled with the UFC counter programming with UFC 110 replay will probably drive the ratings far below what Strikeforce and CBS expect. This card is still stacked and I urge all of you to watch or DVR it. Three title fights for free? Awesome. Read More »

The UFC will counter program the April 17th Strikeforce: Nashville event by airing a replay of UFC 110. That previous PPV card featured Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Cain Velasquez, Wanderlei Silva vs. Michael Bisping, Joe Stevenson vs. George Sotiropoulos, Mirko Cro Cop vs. Anthony Perosh and Chris Lytle vs. Brian Foster. UFC 110 replay is set to air at 9PM ET. Quick Hit: Well you knew this would happen. Dana said he was never planning a live card to counter them, but he never said he wouldn’t counter Strikeforce with nothing. UFC 110 was an excellent card and could very well draw eyes away from the CBS Strikeforce card on April 17th. My advice (if you haven’t seen UFC 110) is to DVR one and watch the other live. Read More »

Reed Harris, WEC General Manager, said last weekend that although the promotion has yet to run any flyweight fights, they still plan to do so. “We’re still entertaining that,” said Harris. “What we had to look at, though, is that we had a roster of fighters now, and in order to keep these guys in top condition and to keep them in fighting mode, you have to give them a certain amount of fights over the year. I think that’s one of the things we do better than any organization out there.” Harris also said that he was hesitant to add a fourth weight class when the three he has are doing so well. “To add that flyweight division would dilute that somewhat, and we felt like we needed some time to still catch up with the guys we had,” he said. “So we’re still looking at that, but right now our focus is getting our fighters fights and keeping them in contention for those titles and things like that.” Quick Hit: Sweet. Adding another division to the WEC would be great. What he says is true, that they have to concentrate on what they have now, but eventually, they should definitely add this weight class. Flyweights are very exciting and fast-paced fighters. Hopefully the WEC gets more attention in the coming months so they can afford to have more fights and add the Flyweight division. Read More »

Well, I didn’t go 11-0, but I did go 7-4. Add that to my picks from the last card, I’m a healthy 12-6. Not bad if I do say so myself. I even picked a fight completely perfect. Love it. Let’s see why I got some right and why I got some wrong. PRELIMINARY CARD Welterweight bout: Charlie Brenneman vs. Jason High My Pick: High, Rd 3, Decision What Happened: Brenneman, Rd 3, Unianimous Decision Brenneman pretty much did what I thought High would do. I figured High’s experience would pull him through and he would dominate the fight. Guess not. Middleweight bout: Gerald Harris vs Mario Miranda My Pick: Harris, Rd 2, KO What Happened: Harris, Rd 1, TKO I knew Harris would end this fight by landing well placed strikes. I thought it would take him a round to find the range and finally deliver the endgame. Guess he figured it out a lot sooner. Middleweight bout: Yushin Okami vs. Lucio Linhares My Pick: Okami, Rd 3, Decision What Happened: Okami, Rd 2, TKO TKO? That was YUSHIN Okami right? Crazy. Impressive victory by the once elevated Middleweight. Hopefully he continues performaces like this so he can get back atop the division. Lightweight bout: Caol Uno vs. Gleison Tibau My Pick: Tibau, Rd 3, Decision What Happened: Tibau, Rd 1, TKO This fight wasn’t even close. These guys are barely in the same weight class. Tibau looked like a giant compared to Uno. Uno really needs to drop to 145lb. Either that or Tibau needs to jump up a class. He was tossing around Caol like a ragdoll. I guess it was an impressive victory, but Tibau was basically fighting a little kid. Lightweight bout: Rob Emerson vs. Nik Lentz My Pick: Lentz, Rd 1, TKO What Happened: Lentz, Rd 3, Unianimous Decision Emerson really wasn’t ever in this fight. I thought Lentz would end it early. Instead, he just dominated the fight. Good showing. Hopefully Joe Silva and Dana get together and give Lentz a step up in competition next time around. Lightweight bout: Jacob Volkmann vs. Ronnys Torres My Pick: Torres, Rd 3, Decision What Happened: Volkmann, Rd 3, Split Decision Ronnys had it. This fight was close but I don’t disagree with the outcome. It could’ve gone either way. I would watch a rematch, but I don’t think that’s in Zuffa’s cards as of yet. Probably never. Lightweight bout: Andre Winner vs. Rafaello Oliveira My Pick: Winner, Rd 1, KO What Happened: Winner, Rd 3, Unianimous Decision I really thought Rafaello didn’t have the speed to deal with Andre and he would get caught with a devastating overhand. I was part right. He took some shots, just not the business shot. I look forward to Winner’s career. Hopefully next time the UFC will put him on television. Very enjoyable to watch. MAIN CARD Middleweight bout: Nate Quarry vs. Jorge Rivera My Pick: Quarry, Rd 2, TKO What Happened: Rivera, Rd 2, TKO Jorge just took… Read More »

Shinya Aoki vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri is in the works for DREAM.16. DREAM.16 is tentatively planned for July, but no date has been officially announced. Aoki’s DREAM lightweight title has not been confirmed to be on the line as of yet. Quick Hit: Sweet. DREAM doesn’t always come through, but when they do, they do things like this. I fully expect Aoki to win, but anything can happen. Hopefully his belt will be on the line. And I still don’t get the highlighter pants. Read More »